Prompt request by the-doctor-wtf.
Note: might be a bit different than anyone might expect. I actually had never heard of The Snow Queen before…and I happened to read the basics of it before I started writing and made it somewhat into my own. Still very AU. I hope you enjoy it.
Based on the story - The Snow Queen: Long ago a bit of the Snow Queen's mirror, smaller than a grain of sand, blew into his eye and froze his heart. Can childhood friend Molly break the curse before the Snow Queen takes Sherlock away from her forever?
Molly Hooper was just a young girl barely of the age of eleven when she had the fortunate pleasure of meeting a boy with a dark curls and a strange but nice face. She had been looking for some flowers for her mum to take to her dad who had been struck by the influenza that had overtaken the small town in which she had recently moved into.
He had just said one short statement to her as she was squatted down in front of the row of plants and weeds of many colors and lengths. Some were very pretty whereas the other ones were very different and strange in comparison. Her hand was reached out to grasp a dark violet colored plant but his voice had stopped her. "Not those."
"Why not?" She asked without looking up at him. She was just a girl and he did seem very nice, then.
"Do you intend to die?" He mumbled as he swatted her hand away from the pretty looking flowers and plucked a ruby colored one and passed it to her. Then stood up as if it was nothing special.
Molly grabbed three of the same kind before joining him. He was staring off as if he was looking for something in particular. He wasn't, she thought. "What's your name?" Molly asked as she inspected the three flowers in her hand. They were all so very pretty.
"What's yours? It's polite to first introduce yourself, don't you have any manners?" He looked down at her as he was a few feet taller than her.
She just smiled at him before curtsying and saying "how do you do?" in a very sarcastically. Molly did a brief pause before speaking again. He made such a funny face when he was surprised. "Molly Hooper, that's my name just in case you actually wanted to know."
"Well, Miss Hooper be careful next time I might not be here to prevent your death." He stated with a small smirk upon his face. She found it a little hard to believe that he had ever not made a face like that. It was all very funny.
He had begun to walk away when Molly called out to him. "You're being very rude, boy! You still haven't told me who you are!"
"It's possible that I don't want to tell you my name then, girl." He called over his shoulder.
Molly just shook her head before turning around in the opposite direction of which the strange boy was going and walking away too. He was different, she mused as she ran along back into town to the small clinic where her mum was waiting.
The first thing she uttered as she found her mum was that she met a strange boy. That was the first of many discussions circling around the boy with the curls and the strange face.
.
Sherlock Holmes found it to be strange six years later at the age of eighteen that he had found it suitable to be around the kind young girl he had met in the tiny garden a little ways away from his family's home. It was actually his property but he had never mentioned that to her nor did he tell his parents of the intruder that had stumbled ungracefully in his space.
It was his, after all. There was no need to discuss matters anymore. It was mostly a project of study that he had begun a few years prior when he first begun his studies at home. His parents had decided to keep two homes. One for the summer – this one and the other one for the fall and spring when the boys (he has an older brother) were at school. He had made a small compromise with mummy in order to stay after the second encounter with the girl with the odd behavior.
He had merely muttered, "I wish to study something more closely than during the summer. It may become important."
His mother had looked at him oddly as she did the day he came back rubbing furiously at his eye after entering the forest that was just beyond the town. She had known that something had happened but he had just ignored her questioning eyes, as always and went up to his room. He said he was tired, though she knew that wasn't true. Something had happened to her son who always made her worried. He always did that.
When he requested to stay here and study publicly which was the only option with the area that this was. Such a small but nice town, it was. They owned one of the larger homes in it. She just said, "Okay, I will be staying with you if that is the case."
Sherlock just stayed silent for a moment before agreeing to the terms with a small jerk of his head. He left to go play his violin then. The older woman just laughed after her son. Something had most certainly peaked his interest if not someone.
Fast forward to the present and here Sherlock finds himself at his final year sitting under a small tree for lunch. This was a good vantage point to view the outer species and what they do. He knew he was different but didn't really care. He was who he was. He had detected a few deceptions already but was stalled from really letting his mind wrap around the lives of the group of people when he was handed a small wrapped sandwich. He didn't have to look over to see that the young woman who had sat next to him with her homemade lunch. Most likely something she made herself as her mother was unwell. She never had to tell him that, it was obvious.
They didn't do much talking. They just sat in silence sometimes people watching. He rubbed at his left eye again as he often did around this time of day until it aggravated him too much. Molly would just grab his hand and ask to have a look. He would just go walk away after that without giving her much a response.
He could just tell her about it, he knew. There was no use he told himself time again when it crossed his mind. The day this curse was thrown at him he could remember clearly but that didn't help much either. The only one that had suspicions of it was Mycroft. He had seen the aftermath as far as he knew.
He was there after that woman had let him be. Mycroft hadn't said a word and it bothered him on the days when he was forced to be in the same room with his brother when he was home from where ever he was. He didn't pay much attention to his brother's life to know. There had been whispers that he was in the government now doing something high up. It hadn't been talked about directly whenever he was around.
Secrets, that's what his family had more than anything. The wealth didn't really matter.
He was harboring one of the greatest ones of all.
Molly Hooper had had enough to worry about when Mycroft Holmes decided that he needed to be introduced to the young woman for reasons he claimed were obvious. Molly was at a loss to what those reasons were. She had never met any of Sherlock Holmes' relatives. Nor had he met any of hers apart from her mum that one time when he walked her home because it was raining and she was without the proper items required to make it home and be back to school without pneumonia or something small as a cold. That had all been out of Sherlock's mouth but Molly had tried to decline.
It was the gentlemen in him, she realized despite the frown that had etched its way onto his face after realizing that they would need to walk. He too was one that walked because of how close he lived to the school.
It was a Sunday on the day that Molly was visited by the older brother of her friend. She had just had supper with her mum within the confines of her room. They talked a little about the next couple weeks and how it was to go if things got worse. Her father had already been gone three years and now her mum was looking bad. At least there was time to plan.
She was just stepping outside to go on a small walk as she did before sunset each day when she saw him coming up the walkway. Molly paused to wait for the man whom she had never seen before but she felt like she should know who he is.
He spoke to her before she could begin to inquire of exactly who he was. "Hello Molly. My name is Mycroft. I believe you know my brother quite well. You go to school with him and are often seen with him during more social times. Sherlock, that is."
"Oh. I didn't know you were his brother. Is there something wrong?" She asked as she twisted her hands out of habit and as a way to do something.
"I suppose so. You were about to take a walk, let me join you." He smiled slightly. Molly noticed the way his body language seemed a bit behind what was coming out of his mouth. These Holmes boys were very odd.
She nodded and took the steps two at a time to meet him on the ground. From there they began to walk along the trail that led away from her house. "You wanted to talk about something that deals with Sherlock? We don't really talk much. I'm not sure if I could do anything."
"On the contrary Miss Hooper, you are the perfect person who can help him with this curse he's got."
"A curse?"
"Yes. Are you aware of the tale of the woman who lives in the forest just beyond town?"
"Somewhat. Did he venture there or something?" Molly placed her hands in her pocket of her jumper as it was cold out.
"When we were younger, yes he did. I hadn't been very watchful of what he was doing that afternoon. Sherlock gets intrigued very easily and I should have followed him quicker than I had. The most that I am aware is that he had begun to inspect the mirror that belongs to the Snow Queen."
"Does she actually exist?" Molly asked, skepticism very much there in her voice.
"It would seem so. He may have touched it but it had been out in the open which was odd. It was a trick, I suppose. Quite a bit of dust had collected about it and as he begun to walk around it she came back and saw him. That's as much as I figured anyhow. I don't know the entire story but when I found him he was kneeling on the ground rubbing at his eye as if there was something in it. The woman began shouting, "That is what you get you, vermin. A curse you have now. If it's not fixed by your nineteen birthday I'll get you forever. There is no way out of this, I promise you."
Mycroft saw the way Molly's eyes seem to look sadder than the moment she had walked out of the door of her home. He knew of her family's hardship at the moment. That was unfortunate but he needed her help. It seemed she cared for his brother too. They were acquaintances it looked like. She could help him.
"You think there is a way to fix it that involves me?"
He just smiled as he directed for her to turn around and he began to explain his theory to her on the way back to the small house where the Hoopers lived.
Molly had taken everything that Mycroft had told her in mind from his theory to the things that he had offhandedly said about his brother. Some she admitted were very strange and hard to believe but she took time to remember that he could sometimes be difficult even when she wasn't talking. He often went off without much of warning whether that was physically or just into his head which happened more often than not. She had been brushing her hair down the morning of the fateful day.
She had dressed as she usually did as not to thrown him off into thinking anything was different. There was going to be a change after today whether she wanted one or not. What she had to do would get a reaction or it wouldn't. She would deal with whatever happens as it happened. That's what she did best.
She couldn't really fool him though, could she? This was a person who noticed every little thing and commented on it if he felt he needed to which was more times than none.
Everything went okay until it was time to go home after school. She had waited until they were truly alone to do anything. It had been driving her crazy. The waiting made her more nervous than she had already been upon the request was made. She just trailed after him as they made their way out of the school doors and then caught his hand carefully.
That bit which wasn't exactly it seemed to grasp his attention for he just looked down at her and stared at her blankly. "Molly, what is it?" He inquired as he let her pull him a little out of the way so that the other people could get out. She was being kind, he noticed which wasn't completely unlike her. It was what she did.
"You can yell at me later or whatever you feel like doing but I need to do something and don't say anything until you process it, okay?"
He looked confused; it almost made her want to laugh. Instead it made her feel a bit more confident about her next course of action. He stared at her curiously before nodding slightly. "Okay." He added quietly as he waited.
Molly hesitated a moment before letting go of his hand standing on her toes so that she could reach him and curled her hands around his face carefully. His eyes had widen a bit in shock, she thought. Never thought I'd see the day, she thought before pressing her lips against his carefully. It had never crossed her mind that she would ever be in this positioned. Granted she knew that the other girls in their age group found Sherlock Holmes, her friend attractive and she could see it but it had never crossed her mind. Ever.
Yet, here she was with her lips pressed against his in a delicate kiss. She could only register a few things at the moment. Her heart was raging behind her rib cage, and the sound was louder than the background noise of their peers milling around. Then there was the actual feel of his lips against hers. They were softer than she remembered. Granted they had never kissed on the lips before. He had pecked her on the cheek a few times before.
This kiss wasn't very long however for she didn't want to make a scene. That's not what this was. She was trying to fix something before it got bad. She couldn't fathom what life would be like if she lost him. She knew she would tonight if she didn't try this. She had to try.
"Sorry." She mumbled as she stepped away from him and looked away.
Sherlock mind seemed to do two things the moment he realized what was about to happen and as it did too. It shut down on him for a slight second and then it revved up afterwards. There had been a change as to which she hadn't thought of before. First came the realization that he had shared a kiss with his childhood companion. Then he seemed to blank as he felt the first beats of his heart and then he was reaching out for her again, unconsciously.
Molly had started to walk away from him not expecting him to react to that moment at all. Instead he surprised her as he did on occasion. He pulled her towards him and looked her in the eyes as he used the other hand to brush at his eye as it seemed to not irritate him as much anymore. The bits of sand that were lodged in there for so long eased on out slowly. It was a strange feeling for him to be relieved of that. His mind seemed to bring him back to the young woman that he had in his arms for the most part.
Molly began to say something when Sherlock leaned down and pressed his lips against hers in a not so friendly kiss. It was more frantic and intense, Molly had to make sure she had a hold on him in order to grasp and not fall in the slightest. Not that Sherlock would exactly let that happen but there was a first time for everything. As this was definitely one of those times.
When Sherlock pecked her one last time and pulled back he had a shy smile on his face as he spoke to her. "Thank you."